If you took Shmoop Lit in the Media...

[a2jc4life]

How long did it take you to finish this class?  It seems like this is taking me "forever," because there's no warning of what texts are needed, so I keep having to wait to obtain reading material.  This is not very good for my economic efficiency.  (I'm about to have to pay for another month of membership.)  Was it always this way, or is this part of the site redesign?

[Doodlebabe]

Not helpful, but I see this is your second Shmoop class. Is needed additional material standard for Shmoop? Are they definitely required readings to pass the class, are you only needing a vague sentence or two from each book, or can you manage without?

[Ideas]

How long did it take you to finish this class?  It seems like this is taking me "forever," because there's no warning of what texts are needed, so I keep having to wait to obtain reading material.  This is not very good for my economic efficiency.  (I'm about to have to pay for another month of membership.)  Was it always this way, or is this part of the site redesign?

When I had my membership back in April, it seemed like they told you the titles of the books at the start.

You might be able to get the books from a library the same day, or within a few days. Or I would get the ebook version to avoid waiting.

[a2jc4life]

Not helpful, but I see this is your second Shmoop class. Is needed additional material standard for Shmoop? Are they definitely required readings to pass the class, are you only needing a vague sentence or two from each book, or can you manage without?

I've only taken the two.  Bible as Literature didn't require any outside texts (that weren't linked to and completely free online).  I suspect it might be the exception?  I feel like the other literature classes, though, are probably a bit less "scattered" and it's, therefore, a little clearer what you're likely to need.

There were a number of books where we were supposed to read a single chapter.  I didn't read these, and just fudged it.  I wasn't going to buy a whole book for a single chapter if I didn't have to!  Understanding Comics is pretty non-negotiable; you read pretty much the whole book over the course of almost an entire unit.  (It's good, though.  I ordered it via Amazon Prime b/c that was quicker than waiting on our library, and I'm not sorry to have it.)  And Frankenstein (both book and movie) and The Tempest are pretty essential, I think.  All of these should be easily accessible at the library, though -- IF you know you need them.

I just finished the final, and I've been taking notes, so I'll post a thread with some more detail.